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Missing snake found on Subway

The owner of a snake that went missing on the MBTA Red Line for a month has been billed $650 for the cost of recovering the snake and sanitizing the train.

Watch Report

The snake, a Dumeril’s boa called Penelope, disappeared while Melissa Moorhouse was riding on the MBTA between the Park Street and Andrews Square stations on Jan 7.

Moorhouse immediately reported the snake missing, but a search of the Red Line car came up empty. Moorhouse argues she could have found the snake the day it went missing if MBTA officials allowed her to search for her pet.

She said officials seemed skeptical that the snake even existed.

“They asked me if I was hallucinating and what kind of drugs I had taken,” she said.

In its letter asking for payment, the MBTA said Moorhouse had violated its pet policy by not carrying the snake in a carrier. Moorhouse had been wearing the boa, as she sometimes does, wrapped around her neck.

“I was shocked, and I was upset to tell you the truth,” Moorhouse said.